SUMMER 2019SW087Q One minute remains before
the start of the Thursday night
“beer can” race in Newport
Beach, California. Andy Rose
is the tactician on his own
Andrews 49, It’s OK!. The wind
is funneling down the harbor
at 10 knots as 20 boats jockey
for position. The starting area is
crowded and the adrenaline is
running through the crew. As a
guest in the back of the boat,
I watch as Rose makes his calls.
We’re to windward of the
starting line when Rose notes
the wind is shifting to the left.
With 25 seconds remaining,
he calls for a dip start. Rope is
spinning o the winches as the
trimmers ease sheets and we
bear away to sail below the line.
With 5 seconds on the clock,
Rose calls for a tack. The deck
explodes with movement as
crew sprint from one side to the
other as we tack to port.
The starting horn sounds,
and we cross the fleet on port
tack. It was a brilliant maneuver
by one of the greatest tacti-
cians of our age. He smiles and
tells everyone, “Nice start.”
Rose grew up sailing in
Southern California in the 1960s.
He raced frequently and had a
knack for the game of match-
racing tactics.
He won the Governor’s Cup
Match Regatta hosted by Balboa
Yacht YC in 1969 and 1970, the
youngest to ever do so. He then
teamed up with University of
Southern California All-American,
Argyle Campbell and won the
Congressional Cup in 1970 and
- They were young, bold
and supremely talented match
racers. Soon afterward, Rose
was in high demand on the inter-
national yacht racing scene. He
was the tactician on several of
the hottest racing boats of the
era, including Ondine, Blackfin,
Kialoa and the Australian
yacht Ballyhoo.
In 1977, Alan Bond challenged
for the America’s Cup for a sec-
ond time. Rose was tapped as
the team’s tactician. The only
issue was that Rose was an
American and Bond was chal-
lenging on behalf of Australia.
At the time, there was no
specific rule against having a
non-national on a crew, but it
wasn’t common practice dur-
ing the 12-Meter era. Rose and
his team won the Challenger tri-
als against crews from Sweden,
France and a second Australian
challenger. I was the tacti-
cian on the American defender,
Courageous, and we were pit-
ted to battle on the sport’s
biggest stage.
Rose was slim and trim and
sported a signature dark mus-
tache in the mold of singer
Robert Goulet. He was a reveler
onshore, but ruthless on the
water. His match-race tactics
were creative and unique, and
he was one of the first sail-
ors to understand the value of
being aggressive in the prestart.
He set a standard that was later
used in the America’s Cup.
As with most Cup matches,
the first race always arrives with
great anticipation. No one truly
knows which boat is going to be
faster. About three days before
the Cup, we were training o
Newport, Rhode Island.
The Australians were sailing
about a half-mile to leeward.
We were instructed by the New
York YC’s Cup Committee to stay
away from the challengers, but
I took bearings to compare our
speed. Their speed edge was on
my mind when we started Race
1 of the 1977 match.
Australia II had about a half-
boatlength lead as its bow
crossed the starting line. I could
see Rose taking bearings on us.
It took about 20 minutes for
Courageous to establish a one-
length lead because we were a
little faster on the upwind legs.
The Australians gained on thedownwind legs but were never
able to pass as the regatta pro-
gressed. Courageous won the
series 4 to 0. In the process,
Rose became a close friend.
I’d always been curious about
how he felt when the Australians
defeated Dennis Conner in the
1983 America’s Cup. He told me
he remembers the moment well.
“I was very much rooting for
them,” Rose says. “I’m a true
American and I love my country,
but I wore green and gold that
day. I was proud to see them do
it. That was magic, and it was a
tremendous thing for the Cup.”
Rose found his way into the
Australian camp in 1974, at age- He was invited to Australia
to coach the team on match
racing. The syndicate’s leaders,
Jim Hardy and John Bertrand,
treated him well and listened
to him, he says: “They wanted
to learn. It was a great ego trip.”
In 1977, the Independence-
Courageous Syndicate courted
Rose to serve as tactician on
Independence, but he never
heard from them again. The
Australians called and asked if
he’d join them, but he declined.
Months later, he reconsidered
and called Alan Bond, asking if
he could change his mind.
“Yes, when can you be here?”
Bond said.
Rose responded, “How about
the red-eye plane tonight?”
The next day, he stepped
aboard the 12-Meter Australia.
Between his sailing gigs,
Rose attended Stanford, then
law school at the University of
California, Davis. Today, Balboa
Island in Newport Beach is his
home base, but he travels exten-
sively for sailing and works in the
renewable energy business.
Rose’s It’s OK! is tied to the
dock of his modest harbor-side
home. It’s a great set up for a
sailor. The boat is 49.9 feet,
which puts it just under the local
weeknight series’ 50-foot cuto.
Once, when I was invited for
a weeknight race, Rose invited
about 20 or so teenagers to join
the crew. The deck was a little
crowded, but we still won the
race. As I look back on that eve-
ning, winning wasn’t the biggest
challenge. The more difficult
part was avoiding all the small
boats and ferries steaming
around the harbor.
Match racing and offshore
sailing are important factors
in Rose’s career. He got o to
a fast start at a young age as
the watch captain of the maxi,
Blackfin. He was only 21 then,
so he understands how impor-
tant it is for young sailors to
have opportunities.
The Balboa YC established the
Governor’s Cup for junior sailors
two years after the Long Beach
YC started its Congressional
Cup. Ronald Reagan, California’s
governor at the time, signed the
Deed of Gift for the junior match-
race regatta. In 2014, Rose led a
group of yacht club members in
commissioning a new fleet of
22-foot sloops for the Governor’s
Cup. Alan Andrews designed the
new boat, which performs well
in the area’s prevailing light to
moderate winds. This special
regatta had a profound eect
on Rose’s career—which explains
why he works hard to make sure
it continues to thrive. Raising the
funds to build a 16-boat fleet is
a big project.
Rose is a persuasive person
and is generous himself. At the
50th Anniversary Governor’s
Cup, he arranged to have the
Congressional Cup trophy and
the America’s Cup itself sit-
ting on a table next to the
Governor’s Cup, an oversized
bowl atop a massive wooden
base. Rose says he’s embar-
rassed by the audacious size of
the trophy that bears his name,
but standing waist high, it’s a
fitting tribute to a man who has
accomplished so much and is
credited with replenishing the
next generation of traditional
match-racing sailors.
As the young competitors
studied the trophies, Rose sat
to the side watching with a
slight smile of satisfaction. QAndy Rose at Balboa YC
alongside the Governor’s Cup
International Youth Match Racing
Championship trophy.
PHOTO: PAUL TODD /
OUTSIDE IMAGES
This Rose is a Rose
A highly respected young sailor of his era,
today Andy Rose is focused on providing young
racers a path to higher ground